Exodus 9:20
הַיָּרֵא אֶת־דְּבַר יְהוָה מֵֽעַבְדֵי פַּרְעֹה הֵנִיס אֶת־עֲבָדָיו וְאֶת־מִקְנֵהוּ אֶל־הַבָּתִּֽים׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
הַיָּרֵא֙ אֶת־דְּבַ֣ר יְהוָ֔ה מֵֽעַבְדֵ֖י פַּרְעֹ֑ה הֵנִ֛יס אֶת־עֲבָדָ֥יו וְאֶת־מִקְנֵ֖הוּ אֶל־הַבָּתִּֽים׃
φοβούμενος τὸ ῥῆμα Τυρίου τῶν θεραπόντων Φαραὼ συνήγαγεν τὰ κτήνη αὐτοῦ εἰς τοὺς οἴκους·
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Qui timuit verbum Domini de servis Pharaonis, facit confugere servos suos et jumenta in domos:
Los funcionarios del faraón que le tuvieron miedo a la advertencia de Yehová metieron de prisa a sus esclavos y a sus animales en las casas.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
De los siervos de Faraón el que temió la palabra de Jehová, hizo huir sus criados y su ganado á casa:
Those among Pharaoh ’s officials who feared the word of the LORD hurried to bring their servants and livestock to shelter,
✦ What the text says
Summary
Exodus 9:20 describes a selective reaction among Pharaoh's officials to the warning of the plague of hail: the one(s) who feared devar Yehovah ("the word of Yehovah") took protective action, causing their servants and livestock to be brought into shelter.
Key words
- hai.yaRe ("the one fearing", H3373) — qal participle with definite article, functioning as a substantive ("the fearer/the one who feared"), identifying a specific class of person rather than describing an action in progress.
- devar ("word of", H1697G) — masculine singular construct, forming a bound phrase with Yehovah ("word of Yehovah"), the object of fear marked by the untranslated direct object marker 'et.
- me'avdei ("from the servants of", H5650) — construct plural with the preposition me ("of/from"), producing a partitive sense: "from among the servants of Pharaoh," singling out a subgroup rather than all of Pharaoh's servants.
- heNis ("he made to flee", H5127) — hiphil perfect, causative stem, denoting that the subject caused others (his servants and livestock) to flee/be brought to safety, not that he himself fled.
- miqNehu ("his livestock", H4735) — construct noun with 3ms suffix hu, paired with 'avaDav ("his servants") as the two objects rescued.
What the text says
The Hebrew sentence opens with a participial phrase acting as its subject: ha-yaRe' 'et-devar Yehovah me-'avdei Par'oh, literally "the one fearing the word of Yehovah, from among the servants of Pharaoh." The preposition me attached to 'avdei creates a partitive construction, marking this fearer as one selected out of the larger group of Pharaoh's servants, rather than describing the whole group collectively. The main verb heNis, a hiphil perfect from the root meaning "to flee," is causative: the subject did not himself flee but caused his servants and livestock ('avaDav and miqNehu, both bearing the 3ms possessive suffix) to be moved 'el ha-batTim ("into the houses"). The grammar thus distinguishes the fearer (singular participle) from the objects of his action (his own dependents and animals), and marks a causative, protective act rather than personal escape.
Differences between versions
The LXX (Swete) renders devar Yehovah as τὸ ῥῆμα Τυρίου, using a divine designation differing from the Hebrew Yehovah, and translates heNis ("made to flee") with συνήγαγεν ("gathered together") rather than a causative-flight verb. The Vulgate's facit confugere ("makes to flee") corresponds more closely to the Hebrew hiphil sense of causing flight. Modern translations vary in rendering the singular participle ha-yaRe': BSB pluralizes it as "those among Pharaoh's officials," while RV1909 keeps it singular ("el que temió"), reflecting different choices in handling the partitive construction me'avdei Par'oh.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.